Struggle to buy train tickets

There are only two days left until the official start of the holiday travel in China, which has been called the world's largest human migration. But while some people have booked their train tickets, many others are still waiting for a ticket home.

They are among the estimated 220 million Chinese traveling by train to go home to their families for the upcoming Spring Festival, which is only 16 days away. Due to their relatively low price, train tickets have been in high demand, and not everyone has been able to get one. Many of those waiting in the train station to try their luck are migrant workers.

Migrant worker, Beijing ,sadi:"I called the hotline, but it did not go through successfully. And there were no tickets available on-line or in the kiosk either, so I bought a high-speed train ticket for a higher price."

Migrant worker, Beijing, said:"I checked the hotline and website, but there were no tickets. The kiosk didn't have a ticket for my direction either."

Although there are several ways to get tickets in China, travelers usually book on-line, call the telephone hotlines, or purchase them directly from kiosks in the train station. According to Hitwise, a company that measures website traffic, 12306.cn, the official train ticket booking website, has averaged more than 120 million daily hits since January 16th and sells up to 300-thousand tickets per hour. But the heavy traffic has also caused the site to sometimes crash, leaving many unable to get their tickets.

Prof. Wu Jianhong, Beijing Jiaotong University said:"The major train ticket dilemma now is for migrant workers. Many say that purchasing tickets on-line and from the kiosks are contradictory. Migrant workers have no skills or equipment to order tickets on-line, therefore the government should consider increasing the proportion of tickets sold at train kiosks."

The Ministry of Railways has issued a new policy this year to allow passengers to buy tickets up to 20 days in advance. However to get tickets even faster, some have installed software that lets them cut the line and undermine the fairness of purchasing tickets on-line. Although authorities have banned such software , it can still be found.

Liu Yang, Beijing, said:" Experts say that speeding up railway construction and urbanization and balancing regional development are a few fundamental ways to tackle the current train ticket situation. Still, in reality, we can't guarantee that everyone gets a ticket back home for the Spring Festival. But the least the government should do is construct a fair purchasing system for every ticket buyer. This is a basic step in building a fair society in China."